The Dog Ate My Banana

This morning when I went to change the baby I set alongside my cup of decaf a banana of which I had eaten two bites. This was on a high stool which serves as a sort of end table next to the Mission style glider rocker that I customarily sit in while nursing the baby.

As I finished up with the baby, I heard Julianna say, "Bosco! What are you eating?!" I asked what he had gotten ahold of and she said she didn't know but it was gone, whatever it was... had I been eating a banana? That dog ate the whole banana, peel and all. In about ten seconds, or probably much less knowing him.

He's a very large brown Doberman, no tail but still has his ears, and he's very tall which means he can set his chin on the dining table without stretching or straining. We found this out one year at my birthday when we left the remains of the birthday cake on the table overnight. It was a big sheet cake and we left it near the center of the table. When we got up in the morning there were big bites taken out all along the outside edges of the cake.

Since we got him about 4 years ago, a pitiful rescued dog covered in scabs and so sunburned he was golden everywhere except a dark, dark brown ring where his collar had been, he has been a bit of a blessing and a curse. He looks very fierce and has a deep, baying bark, but he screams like a little girl and hides under the table if something makes a loud noise. He loves his kibble to the point of choking it down so fast it makes him choke, then he hurls it up onto the rug and eats it all over again (bonus!). No food is safe within his reach, and in his eagerness he will bite your hand if you try to give him a treat without tossing it to him. He takes up a lot of room and is always in your way, but he's the sweetest dog you'll ever meet and has never turned down affection. Quite the opposite.

He came to us with a badly healed broken pelvis, courtesy his former owners who told Amy (Julianna's sister the veterinarian, in case you were wondering at all why we have three cats and three dogs) that he'd been hit by a car oh, six, eight months ago. They couldn't remember exactly. He limped and wouldn't touch his left hind foot to the ground if he was running, only when walking and very carefully. Amy operated on him and said it was the worst case she'd ever seen. He has regained good use of the hip although he still limps slightly -- but you should see him run at the park, chasing the squirrels and just running for the sheer joy of it.

We love him but he's not easy to live with in a smallish house with two other dogs. So we are going to loan him out to our friends The Jeffs, and if he does well there we will let them keep him. If it's not a good fit, we'll bring him back here and keep him for the rest of his days. He deserves to have a good home and he'll get better attention over there, where there aren't a lot of other animals and a baby competing for attention, but if it doesn't work out we want him back here with his dog friends. That's our main concern, that he'll be so lonely for our other dogs that he won't settle down and he'll spend his days howling until someone comes home. We wonder if Jeff and Jeffrey will consider getting another dog, even just a small one, to be his pal.

On to a different topic. Is my blog dull? Really you can be honest. I am not wrestling with career concerns, I don't personally manufacture anything of importance (aside from breast milk ha ha), my life is pretty circumscribed these days. Domestic concerns mainly. Getting baby to nap, caring for home, etc. Endless blathering about dogs or cats. Really, is it killing anyone with boredom? Speak up! Do you only tune in for the occasional adorable baby photo?